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Despite record sales and an ever-growing global industry, the simple fact is that videogames are disappearing. Most obviously, the physical deterioration of discs, cartridges, consoles and controllers means that the data and devices will crumble to dust and eventually will be lost forever. However, there is more to the disappearance of videogames than plastic corrosion and bit rot. Best Before examines how the videogames industry's retail, publishing, technology design, advertising and marketing practices actively produce obsolescence, wearing out and retiring old games to make way for the always new, just out of reach, 'coming soon' title and 'next generation' platform. Set against the context of material deterioration and the discursive production of obsolescence, Best Before examines the conceptual and practical challenges faced within the nascent field of game preservation. Understanding videogames as rich, complex and mutable texts and experiences that are supported and sustained by cultures of gameplay and fandom, Best Before considers how - and even whether - we might preserve and present games for future generations.

\"This book describes how companies come up with new video game ideas, create the video games, and advertise them to customers\"-- Provided by publisher.

Video games have had a greater impact on our society than almost any other leisure activity. They not only consume a large portion of our free time, they influence cultural trends, drive microprocessor development, and help train pilots and soldiers. Now, with the Nintendo Wii and DS, they are helping people stay fit, facilitating rehabilitation, and creating new learning opportunities. Innovation has played a major role in the long term success of the video game industry, as software developers and hardware engineers attempt to design products that meet the needs of ever widening segments of the population. At the same time, companies with the most advanced products are often proving to be less successful than their competitors. Innovation and Marketing in the Video Game Industry identifies patterns that will help engineers, developers, and marketing executives to formulate better business strategies and successfully bring new products to market. Readers will also discover how some video game companies are challenging normal industry rules by using radical innovations to attract new customers. Finally, this revealing book sheds light on why some innovations have attracted legions of followers among populations that have never before been viewed as gamers, including parents and senior citizens and how video games have come to be used in a variety of socially beneficial ways. David Wesley and Gloria Barczak's comparison of product features, marketing strategies, and the supply chain will appeal to marketing professionals, business managers, and product design engineers in technology intensive industries, to government officials who are under increasing pressure to understand and regulate video games, and to anyone who wants to understand the inner workings of one of the most important industries to emerge in modern times. In addition, as video games become an ever more pervasive aspect of media entertainment, managers from companies of all stripes need to understand video gaming as a way to reach potential customers. David Wesley is a Research Manager at Northeastern University's College of Business Administration in Boston. His award-winning case studies on companies like Adidas, Hewlett-Packard, and Nintendo have appeared in numerous management textbooks and have been consistently ranked among the best-selling cases at Harvard Business School Publishing and Ivey Publishing. Mr. Wesley has an MBA from the Richard Ivey School of Business and a Bachelor of Science from the University of Victoria. Professor Gloria Barczak is Professor and Chair of the marketing department at Northeastern University and former director of the Executive MBA program. She has published over 25 articles and several book chapters in the area of innovation and new product development and was recently recognized as one of the top innovation management scholars in the world by the Journal of Product Innovation Management and has been awarded the Robert D. Klein University Lecturer for 2009-2010 award by Northeastern University. She is also a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Product Innovation Management, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, and Creativity and Innovation Management.

Abstract The purpose of this chapter is to try to describe how the digital goods or services in the Gaming Industry, which creates digital games as the core product, make omnichannel marketing applications different from other industries with case studies by considering physical products and other consumer touchpoints. Findings in the chapter were obtained as a result of case analysis of various companies that achieved certain successes in Gaming Industry and implemented Omnichannel Marketing techniques. To mention the findings of the chapter, it can be understood that the ways in which Omnichannel Marketing philosophy is implemented in the game industry are strategically highly variable and creative. Digital products, which are introduced as core products, can be seen in a very different physical environment in order to establish a 360-degree connection with the consumer. This study attempts to contribute to the omnichannel marketing literature specifically in Gaming Industry. It depicts different strategic approaches by trying to reveal Omnichannel touchpoints to the industry-specific consumer. The rarity of the analysis of Omnichannel Marketing practices in the Gaming Industry adds originality.

Platform sponsors typically have both incentive and opportunity to manage the overall value of their ecosystems. Through selective promotion, a platform sponsor can reward successful complements, bring attention to underappreciated complements, and influence the consumer’s perception of the ecosystem’s depth and breadth. It can use promotion to induce and reward loyalty of powerful complement producers, and it can time such promotion to both boost sales during slow periods and reduce competitive interactions between complements. We develop arguments about whether and when a platform sponsor will selectively promote individual complements and test these arguments on data from the console video game industry in the United Kingdom. We find that platform sponsors do not simply promote “best in class” complements; they strategically invest in complements in ways that address complex trade-offs in ecosystem value. Our arguments and results build significant new theory that helps us understand how a platform sponsor orchestrates value creation in the overall ecosystem.

Video game technology is changing from 2D to 3D and virtual reality (VR) graphics. In this research, we analyze how an identical video game that is either played in a 2D, stereoscopic 3D or Head-Mounted-Display (HMD) VR version is experienced by the players, and how brands that are placed in the video game are affected. The game related variables, which are analyzed, are presence, attitude towards the video game and arousal while playing the video game. Brand placement related variables are attitude towards the placed brands and memory (recall and recognition) for the placed brands. 237 players took part in the main study and played a jump'n'run game consisting of three levels. Results indicate that presence was higher in the HMD VR than in the stereoscopic 3D than in the 2D video game, but neither arousal nor attitude towards the video game differed. Memory for the placed brands was lower in the HMD VR than in the stereoscopic 3D than in the 2D video game, whereas attitudes towards the brands were not affected. A post hoc study (n = 53) shows that cognitive load was highest in the VR game, and lowest in the 3D game. Subjects reported higher levels of dizziness and motion-sickness in the VR game than in the 3D and in the 2D game. Limitations are addressed and implications for researchers, marketers and video game developers are outlined.

Many platform strategies focus on indirect network effects between sellers through platform expansion. In this paper, we show sellers on the console video game platform generate a positive intertemporal spillover effect and expand the demand for other sellers, holding the set of platform adopters fixed. We propose a novel identification strategy that leverages exogenous variation in the release timing of games exclusively available on a console platform, and examine how this variation affects the sales of games available on both platforms. We find a sizable intertemporal demand spillover effect between games: A 1% increase in total copies sold on a platform leads to a 0.153% increase in the sales of other games in the next month (i.e., an elasticity of 0.153). Additional analysis suggests this demand spillover effect is reminiscent of habit formation on the consumer side, in that past purchases keep end users active on the platform. Our finding provides a potential explanation for recent platform sales events and subscription services that provide free games to consumers every month.

This article examines how product and consumer characteristics moderate the influence of online consumer reviews on product sales using data from the video game industry. The findings indicate that online reviews are more influential for less popular games and games whose players have greater Internet experience. The article shows differential impact of consumer reviews across products in the same product category and suggests that firms' online marketing strategies should be contingent on product and consumer characteristics. The authors discuss the implications of these results in light of the increased share of niche products in recent years.